
Heath’s 


Home and School Classics 


best reading for children of every age, 
^ carefully chosen from the world's storehouse of 
classics. Complete Texts, with only such changes as 
are necessary to fit them for home and school read- 
ing. Educative and attractive illustrations. Beauti- 
fully printed. Strong and durable binding. 

The first thirty-six books will be 
edited by the following men and 
women in whose judgment parents, 
teachers, and all who have to select 
books fof children can implicitly 
rely : 


Edward Everett Hale 
Mary A* Livermore 
Thomas M. Balliet 
George Browne 
W. Elliot Grif f is 
Sarah Willard Hiestand 


Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward 

W.R Trent 

M.V*CyShea 

Charles Welsh 

Charles F* Dole 

and others 


PRICE 10 and 75 CENTS PAPER: 2$ CENTS CLOTH 

Published fortnightly. Yearly sub- 
scription for 24 single numbers, in 
paper covers, $2.50. 


FOR FIRST LIST OF BOOKS IN THE SERIES SEE PAGES 3 AND 4 OF CQVBIU 






“ Crowded as if she had been an elephant, 


It 



ACK ANAPES 


BY ^ 

JULIANA HORATIA EWING 


“ If I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for 
her favors, I could lay on like a butcher, and sit like a 
Jackanapes, never off ! ” — King Henry V., act v., sc. 2. 


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

W. P. TRENT 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH 


ILLUSTRATED BY JOSEPHINE E. BRUCE 


m*- 

ij .. . t‘. 


V] 


BOSTON, U.S.A. 

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 

1900 




30646 






L-ibrary of CongresE, 

Iwo Copies Received 

AUG 4 1900 

Copyright entry 

SECOND COPY. 

Delivered to 

ORDER DIVISION, 

NOV 3 1900 


Copyright, 1900 
By D. C. Heath & Co. 


PREFACE. 


Mrs. Ewing’s books (and, as most boys and girls know, 
she wrote many besides Jackanapes) have long been favor- 
ites wherever the English language is spoken. 

The daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman, Juliana Horatia 
Gatty was born in 1841 and died in 1885. Her mother 
was a story writer, and all her brothers and sisters had 
literary tastes. During the last twenty years of her life 
she edited magazines and wrote many poems, plays, and 
books for children. 

Jacka 7 tapes is the story that practically made her reputa- 
tion, and it. is generally regarded as her best piece of 
literary work. It is too well known to require praise, and 
its fitness for inclusion in such a series as the present is 
incontestable. It has been annotated, under my super- 
vision, solely with the view of making the allusions and 
references more clear to American children. 

When it is remembered that Jackanapes was written in 
1879, the year in which the Prince Imperial of France 
met with his sad death in the British war against the 
Zulus, the general drift and moral of the story can be 
easily understood. 


W. P. TRENT. 



Jackanapes. 

CHAPTER I. 

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, 

Last eve in Beauty’s circle proudly gay, 

The midnight brought the signal sound of strife. 

The morn the marshalling in arms — the day 
Battle’s magnificently stern array ! 

The thunder-clouds close o’er it, which when rent 
The earth is covered thick with other clay. 

Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, 

^ Rider and horse, — friend, foe, — in one red burial blent. 

Their praise is hymn’d by loftier harps than mine ; 

Yet one would I select from that proud throng. 

♦ ♦*♦*** 

To thee, to thousands, of whom each 
And one as all a ghastly gap did make 
In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach 
Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake ; 

The Archangel’s trump, not glory’s, must awake 
Those whom they thirst for. Byron. 

Two Donkeys and the Geese lived on the 
Green, and all other residents of any social stand- 

B I 


2 Jackanapes. 

ing lived in houses round it. The houses had no 
names. Everybody’s address was “ The Green,” but 
the Postman and the people of the place knew 
where each family lived. As to the rest of the 
world, what has one to do with the rest of the 
world when he is safe at home on his own Goose 
Green ? Moreover, if a stranger did come on any 
lawful business, he might ask his way at the shop. 

Most of the inhabitants were long-lived, early 
deaths (like that of the little Miss Jessamine) being 
exceptional ; and most of the old people were proud 
of their age, especially the sexton, who would be 
ninety-nine come Martinmas, and whose father 
remembered a man who had carried arrows, as a 
boy, for the battle of Flodden Field. The Gray 
Goose and the big Miss Jessamine were the only 
elderly persons who kept their ages secret. Indeed, 
Miss Jessamine never mentioned any one’s age, or 
recalled the exact year in which anything had hap- 
pened. She said that she had been taught that it 
was bad manners to do so “ in a mixed assembly.” 

The Gray Goose also avoided dates; but this 
was partly because her brain, though intelligent, 
was not mathematical, and computation was beyond 
her. She never got farther than “ last Michaelmas,” 
“ the Michaelmas before that,” and “ the Michael- 


Flodden Field : the battle at which the Scotch were defeated by the 
English in 1513. It is described in Scott’s “ Marmion.” 

Martinmas : the feast of St. Martin, the eleventh of November. Michael- 
mas : the feast of St. Michael, the twenty-ninth of September. 



Drjll the Ploughboys on the Green, 




Worrying Times. 5 

mas before the Michaelmas before that.” After 
this her head, which was small, became confused, 
and she said, “ Ga, ga!” and changed the subject. 

But she remembered the little Miss Jessamine, 
the Miss Jessamine with the “ conspicuous ” hair. 
Her aunt, the big Miss Jessamine, said it was her 
only fault. The hair was clean, was abundant, was 
glossy; but do what you would with it, it never 
looked quite like other people’s. And at church, 
after Saturday night’s wash, it shone like the best 
brass fender after a spring cleaning. In short, it 
was conspicuous, which does not become a young 
woman, especially in church. 

Those were worrying times altogether, and the 
Green was used for strange purposes. A political 
meeting was held on it with the village Cobbler in 
the chair, and a speaker who came by stage-coach 
from the town, where they had wrecked the bakers’ 
shops, and discussed the price of bread. He came 
a second time by stage ; but the people had heard 
something about him in the meanwhile, and they 
did not keep him on the Green. They took him 
to the pond and tried to make him swim, which he 
could not do, and the whole affair was very disturb- 
ing to all quiet and peaceable fowls. After which 
another man came, and preached sermons on the 
Green, and a great many people went to hear him ; 
for those were “ trying times,” and folk ran hither 
and thither for comfort. And then what did they 
do but drill the ploughboys on the Green, to get 


6 Jackanapes. 

them ready to fight the French, and teach them the 
goose-step ! However, that came to an end at last ; 
for Bony was sent to St. Helena, and the plough- 
boys were sent back to the plough. 

Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those days, 
especially the naughty children, who were kept in 
order during the day by threats of “ Bony shall have 
you,” and who had nightmares about him in the 
dark. They thought he was an Ogre in a cocked 
hat. The Gray Goose thought he was a Fox, and 
that all the men of England were going out in red 
coats to hunt him. It was no use to argue the 
point; for she had a very small head, and when one 
idea got into it there was no room for another. 

Besides, the Gray Goose never saw Bony, nor did 
the children, which rather spoilt the terror of him, 
so that the Black Captain became more effective as 
a Bogy with hardened offenders. The Gray Goose 
remembered his coming to the place perfectly. 
What he came for she did not pretend to know. It 
was all part and parcel of the war and bad times. 
He was called the Black Captain, partly because of 
himself and partly because of his wonderful black 
mare. Strange stories were afloat of how far and 
how fast that mare could go when her master’s 
hand was on her mane and he whispered in her ear. 
Indeed, some people thought we might reckon our- 
selves very lucky if we were not out of the frying- 

Bony : Napoleon Bonaparte. The first Napoleon was frequently called 
“ Bony ” in England. 


7 


The Black Captain. 

pan into the fire, and had not got a certain well- 
known Gentleman of the Road to protect us against 
the French. But that, of course, made him none 
the less useful to the Johnsons’ Nurse when the 
little Miss Johnsons were naughty. 

“You leave off crying this minnit. Miss Jane, or 
I’ll give you right away to that horrid wicked officer. 
Jemima! just look out o’ the windy, if you please, 
and see if the Black Cap’n’s a-coming with his horse 
to carry away Miss Jane.” 

And there, sure enough, the Black Captain strode 
by, with his sword clattering as if it did not know 
whose head to cut off first. But he did not call for 
Miss Jane that time. He went on to the Green, 
where he came so suddenly upon the eldest Master 
Johnson, sitting in a puddle on purpose, in his new 
nankeen skeleton suit, that the young gentleman 
thought judgment had overtaken him at last, and 
abandoned himself to the bowlings of despair. His 
howls were redoubled when he was clutched from 
behind and swung over the Black Captain’s shoulder ; 
but in five minutes his tears were stanched, and he 
was playing with the officer’s accoutrements. All 
of which the Gray Goose saw with her own eyes, 
and heard afterwards that that bad boy had been 
whining to go back to the Black Captain ever since. 

Gentleman of the Road: Dick Turpin, the celebrated highwayman, is doubt- 
less intended. 

Nankeen : a cloth made from cotton grown in China, very much in use in 
England during the first half of this century. 

Skeleton suit : a jacket on which trousers were buttoned. 


8 


Jackanapes. 


which showed how hardened he was, and that no- 
body but Bonaparte himself could be expected to do 
him any good. 

But those were “ trying times.” It was bad 
enough when the pickle of a large and respectable 
family cried for the Black Captain ; when it came to 
the little Miss Jessamine crying for him, one felt 
that the sooner the French landed and had done 
with it, the better. 

The big Miss Jessamine’s objection to him was 
that he was a soldier; and this prejudice was 
shared by all the Green. “ A soldier,” as the 
speaker from the town had observed, “ is a blood- 
thirsty, unsettled sort of a rascal, that the peace- 
able, home-loving, bread-winning citizen can never 
conscientiously look on as a brother till he has 
beaten his sword into a ploughshare and his spear 
into a pruning-hook.” 

On the other hand, there was some truth in what 
the Postman (an old soldier) said in reply, — that 
the sword has to cut a way for us out of many a 
scrape into which our bread-winners get us when 
they drive their ploughshares into fallows that 
don’t belong to them. Indeed, whilst our most 
peaceful citizens were prosperous chiefly by means 
of cotton, of sugar, and of the rise and fall of the 
money-market (not to speak of such saleable mat- 
ters as opium, fire-arms, and “ black ivory ”), disturb- 
ances were apt to arise in India, Africa, and other 

Pickle : a troublesome child. Black ivory : slaves. 


9 


The Black Captain. 

outlandish parts, where the fathers of our domestic 
race were making fortunes for their families. And 
for that matter, even on the Green, we did not wish 
the military to leave us in the lurch, so long as 
there was any fear that the French were coming. 

To let the Black Captain have little Miss Jessa- 
mine, however, was another matter. Her aunt 
would not hear of it; and then, to crown all, it 
appeared that the Captain’s father did not think 
the young lady good enough for his son. Never 
was any affair more clearly brought to a conclu- 
sion. 

But those were “ trying times ” ; and one moon- 
light night, when the Gray Goose was sound asleep 
upon one leg, the Green was rudely shaken under 
her by the thud of a horse’s feet. “ Ga, ga ! ” said 
she, putting down the other leg and running away. 

By the time she returned to her place not a thing 
was to be seen or heard. The horse had passed 
like a shot. But next day there was hurrying 
and skurrying and cackling at a very early hour, all 
about the white house with the black beams, where 
Miss Jessamine lived. And when the sun was so 
low and the shadows so long on the grass that the 

“ The political men declare war, and generally for commercial interests ; 
but when the nation is thus embroiled with its neighbors, the soldier .... 
draws the sword at the command of his country. . . . One word as to thy 
comparison of military and commercial persons. What manner of men be 
they who have supplied the Caffres with the fire-arms and ammunition to 
maintain their savage and deplorable wars ? Assuredly they are not military. 
. . . . Cease then, if thou wouldst be counted among the just, to vilify sol- 
diers.” — W. Napier, Lieutenant-General^ November, 1851. 


lo Jackanapes. 

Gray Goose felt ready to run away at the sight of 
her own neck, little Miss Jane Johnson and her 
“ particular friend ” Clarinda sat under the big oak 
tree on the Green, and Jane pinched Clarinda’s 
little finger till she found that she could keep a 
secret, and then she told her in confidence that she 
had heard from Nurse and Jemima that Miss Jes- 
samine’s niece had been a very naughty girl, and 
that that horrid wicked officer had come for her on 
his black horse and carried her right away. 

“ Will she never come back ? ” asked Clarinda. 

“Oh, no!” said Jane, decidedly. “Bony never 
brings people back.” 

“ Not never no more? ” sobbed Clarinda, for she 
was weak-minded, and could not bear to think that 
Bony never, never let naughty people go home 
again. 

Next day Jane had heard more. 

“ He has taken her to a Green.” 

“ A Goose Green ? ” asked Clarinda. 

“No. A Gretna Green. Don’t ask so many 
questions, child,” said Jane, who, having no more 
to tell, gave herself airs. 

Jane was wrong on one point. Miss Jessamine’s 
niece did come back, and she and her husband were 
forgiven. The Gray Goose remembered it well ; it 
was Michaelmas-tide, the Michaelmas before the 
Michaelmas before the Michaelmas — but, ga, ga ! 

Gretna Green : a place in Scotland just over the border of England, famous 
as a place for runaway marriages, 


Goes to War. 


1 1 

What does the date matter? It was autumn, har- 
vest time, and everybody was so busy prophesying 
and praying about the crops, that the young couple 
wandered through the lanes, and got blackberries 
for Miss Jessamine’s celebrated crab and blackberry 
jam, and made guys of themselves with bryony- 
wreaths, and not a soul troubled his head about 
them, except the children and the Postman. The 
children dogged the Black Captain’s footsteps (his 
bubble reputation as an Ogre having burst) clamor- 
ing for a ride on the black mare. And the Post- 
man would go somewhat out of his postal way to 
catch the Captain’s dark eye, and show that he had 
not forgotten how to salute an officer. 

But they were “ trying times.” One afternoon the 
black mare was stepping gently up and down the 
grass, with her head at her master’s shoulder, and 
as many children crowded on to her silky back as 
if she had been an elephant in a menagerie ; and 
the next afternoon she carried him away, sword and 
sabre- tache clattering war music at her side, and the 
old Postman waiting for them, rigid with salutation, 
at the four cross-roads. 

War and bad times! It was a hard winter; and 
the big Miss Jessamine and the little Miss Jessa- 
mine (but she was Mrs. Black-Captain now) lived 
very economically, that they might help their poorer 
neighbors. They neither entertained nor went into 
company; but the young lady always went up the 

Sabre-tache : sword pocket. A heavy leather pocket worn by cavalry. 


1 2 Jackanapes. 

village as far as the George and Drago^i, for air and 
exercise, when the London Mail came in. 

One day (it was a day in the following June) it 
came in earlier than usual, and the young lady was 
not there to meet it. 

But a crowd soon gathered round the George and 
Dragon, gaping to see the Mail Coach dressed with 
flowers and oak-leaves, and the guard wearing a 
laurel wreath over and above his royal livery. The 
ribbons that decked the horses were stained and 
flecked with the warmth and foam of the pace at 
which they had come, for they had pressed on with 
the news of Victory. 

Miss Jessamine was sitting with her niece under 
the oak tree on the Green, when the Postman put 
a newspaper silently into her hand. Her niece 
turned quickly, — 

“ Is there news ? ” 

“ Don’t agitate yourself, my dear,” said her aunt. 
“ I will read it aloud, and then we can enjoy it to- 
gether; a far more comfortable method, my love, 
than when you go up the village, and come home 
out of breath, having snatched half the news as you 
run.” 


George and Dragon : the sign of the village inn. 

“ The Mail Coach it was that distributed over the face of the land, like the 
opening of apocalyptic vials, the heart-shaking news of Trafalgar, of Sala- 
manca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo. . . . The grandest chapter of our experi- 
ence, within the whole Mail-Coach service, was on those occasions when we 
went down from London with the news of Victory. Five “years of life it 
was worth paying down for the privilege of an outside place.” — De Quincey. 


Fierce War and Faithful Love. i 3 

“ I am all attention, dear aunt,” said the little 
lady, clasping her hands tightly on her lap. 

Then Miss Jessamine read aloud, — she was proud 
of her reading, — and the old soldier stood at atten- 
tion behind her, with such a blending of pride and 
pity on his face as it was strange to see : — 

“ Downing Street, 

22, 1815, I A.M.” 

“ That’s one in the morning,” gasped the Post- 
man ; “ beg your pardon, mum.” 

But though he apologized, he could not refrain 
from echoing here and there a weighty word : “ Glo- 
rious victory,” — “ Two hundred pieces of artillery,” 
— “Immense quantity of ammunition,” — and so 
forth. 

“ The loss of the British Army upon this occasion has 
unfortunately been most severe. It had not been possible 
to make out a return of the killed and wounded when 
Major Percy left headquarters. The names of the officers 
killed and wounded, as far as they can be collected, are 
annexed. 

“ I have the honor — ’’ 

“ The list, aunt ! Read the list ! ” 

“ My love — my darling — let us go in and — ” 

“ No. Now ! now ! ” 

To one thing the supremely afflicted are entitled 
in their sorrow, — to be obeyed ; and yet it is the 
last kindness that people commonly will do them. 
But Miss Jessamine did. Steadying her voice, as 


H 


Jackanapes. 

best she might, she read on ; and the old soldier 
stood bareheaded to hear that first Roll of the 
Dead at Waterloo, which began with the Duke of 
Brunswick and ended with Ensign Brown. Five- 
and-thirty British Captains fell asleep that day on 
the Bed of Honor, and the Black Captain slept 
among them. 

There are killed and wounded by war, of whom 
no returns reach Downing Street. 

Three days later, the Captain’s wife had joined 
him, and Miss Jessamine was kneeling by the cradle 
of their orphan son, a purple-red morsel of human- 
ity, with conspicuously golden hair. 

“ Will he live. Doctor ? ” 

“ Live ? Bless my soul, ma’am ! Look at him ! 
The young Jackanapes ! ” 

“ Brunswick’s fated chieftain ” fell at Quatre Bras, the day before Water- 
loo; but this first (very imperfect) list, as it appeared in the newspapers of 
the day, did begin with his name and end with that of Ensign Brown. 




CHAPTER II. 

And he wandered away and away 
With Nature, the dear old Nurse. 

Longfellow. 

The Gray Goose remembered quite well the year 
that Jackanapes began to walk, for it was the year 
that the speckled hen for the first time in all her 
motherly life got out of patience when she was sit- 
ting. She had been rather proud of the eggs, — 
they were unusually large, — but she never felt 
quite comfortable on them ; and whether it was 
because she used to get cramp and go off the nest, 
or because the season was bad, or what, she never 
could tell ; but every egg was addled but one, and 
the one that did hatch gave her more trouble than 
any chick she had ever reared. 

It was a fine, downy, bright yellow little thing, 
but it had a monstrous big nose and feet, and such 
an ungainly walk as she knew no other instance of 


15 



i6 


Jackanapes. 


in her well-bred and high-stepping family. And as 
to behavior, it was not that it was either quarrel- 
some or moping, but simply unlike the rest. When 
the other chicks hopped and cheeped on the Green 
about their mother’s feet, this solitary yellow brat 
went waddling off on its own responsibility, and do 
or cluck what the speckled hen would, it went to 
play in the pond. 

It was off one day as usual, and the hen was fuss- 
ing and fuming after it, when the Postman, going 
to deliver a letter at Miss Jessamine’s door, was 
nearly knocked over by the good lady herself, who, 
bursting out of the house with her cap just off and 
her bonnet just not on, fell into his arms, crying, — 

“ Baby ! Baby ! Jackanapes ! Jackanapes ! ” 

If the Postman loved anything on earth, he loved 
the Captain’s yellow-haired child ; so, propping Miss 
Jessamine against her own door-post, he followed 
the direction of her trembling fingers and made for 
the Green. 

Jackanapes had had the start of the Postman by 
nearly ten minutes. The world — the round, green 
world with an oak tree on it — was just becoming 
very interesting to him. He had tried, vigorously 
but ineffectually, to mount a passing pig the last 
time he was taken out walking; but then he was 
encumbered with a nurse. Now he was his own 
master, and might, by courage and energy, become 
the master of that delightful downy, dumpy, yellow 
thing that was bobbing along over the green grass 


17 


The Yellow Thing. 

in front of him. Forward ! Charge ! He aimed 
well, and grabbed it, but only to feel the delicious 
downiness and dumpiness slipping through his fin- 
gers as he fell upon his face. “ Quawk ! ” said the 
yellow thing, and wabbled off sideways. It was this 
oblique movement that enabled Jackanapes to come 
up with it, for it was bound for the pond, and there- 
fore obliged to come back into line. He failed again 
from top-heaviness, and his prey escaped sideways 
as before, and, as before, lost ground in getting back 
to the direct road to the Pond. 

And at the Pond the Postman found them both, — 
one yellow thing rocking safely on the ripples that 
lie beyond duck-weed, and the other washing his 
draggled frock with tears because he too had tried 
to sit upon the Pond and it wouldn’t hold him. 





CHAPTER III. 

If studious, copie fair what time hath blurred, 

Redeem truth from his jawes : if souldier. 

Chase brave employments with a naked sword 
Throughout the world. Fool not ; for all may have. 

If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave. 
******* 

In brief, acquit thee bravely: play the man. 

Look not on pleasures as they come, but go. 

Defer not the least vertue : life’s poore span 
Make not an ell, by trifling in thy woe. 

If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains. 

If well: the pain doth fade, the joy remains. 

George Herbert. 

Young Mrs. Johnson, who was a mother of many, 
hardly knew which to pity more, — Miss Jessamine 
for having her little ways and her antimacassars 
rumpled by a young Jackanapes, or the boy him- 
self for being brought up by an old maid. 

Oddly enough, she would probably have pitied 

Antimacassar : a covering generally made of crochet work hung on sofas 
and backs of chairs to prevent them from being spoiled by the macassar oil 
which it was the fashion to put on the hair in those days. 

i8 


19 


An Obedient Boy. 

neither, had Jackanapes been a girl. ' (One is so 
apt to think that what works smoothest, works to 
the highest ends, having no patience for the results 
of friction.) That Father in God who bade the 
young men to be pure and the maidens brave, 
greatly disturbed a member of his congregation, 
who thought that the great preacher had made a 
slip of the tongue. 

“ That the girls should have purity, and the boys 
courage, is what you would say, good Father ? ” 

“ Nature has done that,” was the reply; “ I meant 
what I said.” 

In good sooth, a young maid is all the better for 
learning some robuster virtues than maidenliness 
and not to move the antimacassars ; and the ro- 
buster virtues require some fresh air and freedom. 
As, on the other hand. Jackanapes (who had a boy’s 
full share of the little beast and the young monkey in 
his natural composition) was none the worse, at his 
tender years, for learning some maidenliness, — so 
far as maidenliness means decency, pity, unselfish- 
ness, and pretty behavior. 

And it is due to him to say that he was an obe- 
dient boy, and a boy whose word could be depended 
on, long before his grandfather the General came to 
live at the Green. 

He was obedient ; that is, he did what his great- 
aunt told him. But — oh dear ! oh dear ! — the 
pranks he played, which it had never entered into 
her head to forbid ! 


20 


Jackanapes. 


It was when he had just been put into skele- 
tons (frocks never suited him) that he became very 
friendly with Master Tony Johnson, a younger 
brother of the young gentleman who sat in the pud- 
dle on purpose. Tony was not enterprising, and 
Jackanapes led him by the nose. One summer’s 
evening they were out late, and Miss Jessamine 
was becoming anxious, when Jackanapes presented 
himself with a ghastly face all besmirched with tears. 
He was unusually subdued. 

“I’m afraid,” he sobbed, — “if you please. I’m 
very much afraid that Tony Johnson’s dying in the 
churchyard.” 

Miss Jessamine was just beginning to be dis- 
tracted, when she smelt Jackanapes. 

“You naughty, naughty boys! Do you mean to 
tell me that you’ve been smoking ? ” 

“Not pipes,” urged Jackanapes; “upon my 
honor, aunty, not pipes. Only cigars like Mr. 
Johnson’s! and only made of brown paper with a 
very, very little tobacco from the shop inside them.” 

Whereupon Miss Jessamine sent a servant to 
the churchyard, who found Tony Johnson lying on 
a tombstone, very sick, and having ceased to enter- 
tain any hopes of his own recovery. 

If it could be possible that any “unpleasantness” 
could arise between two such amiable neighbors as 
Miss Jessamine and Mrs. Johnson, and if the still 
more incredible paradox can be that ladies may 
differ over a point on which they are agreed, that 


Bucephalus. 2 1 

point was the admitted fact that Tony Johnson was 
“ delicate ” ; and the difference lay chiefly in this : 
Mrs. Johnson said that Tony was delicate, — mean- 
ing that he was more finely strung, more sensitive, 
a properer subject for pampering and petting, than 
Jackanapes, and that, consequently. Jackanapes was 
to blame for leading Tony into scrapes which 
resulted in his being chilled, frightened, or (most 
frequently) sick. But when Miss Jessamine said 
that Tony Johnson was delicate, she meant that he 
was more puling, less manly, and less healthily 
brought up than Jackanapes, who, when they got 
into mischief together, was certainly not to blame 
because his friend could not get wet, sit a kicking 
donkey, ride in the giddy-go-round, bear the noise 
of a cracker, or smoke brown paper with impunity, 
as he could. 

Not that there was ever the slightest quarrel 
between the ladies. It never even came near it, 
except the day after Tony had been so very sick 
with riding Bucephalus in the giddy-go-round. Mrs. 
Johnson had explained to Miss Jessamine that the 
reason Tony was so easily upset was the unusual 
sensitiveness (as a doctor had explained it to her) of 
the nervous centres in her family — “ Fiddlestick ! ” 
So Mrs. Johnson understood Miss Jessamine to 
say ; but it appeared that she only said “ Treacle- 
stick ! ” which is quite another thing, and of which 
Tony was undoubtedly fond. 

Treaclestick : a stick of candy. 


22 


Jackanapes. 

It was at the Fair that Tony was made ill by 
riding on Bucephalus. Once a year the Goose 
Green became the scene of a carnival. First of 
all, carts and caravans were rumbling up all along, 
day and night. Jackanapes could hear them as he 
lay in bed, and could hardly sleep for speculating 
what booths and whirligigs he should find fairly 
established when he and his dog Spitfire went out 
after breakfast. As a matter of fact, he seldom had 
to wait so long for news of the Fair. The Post- 
man knew the window out of which Jackanapes’ 
yellow head would come, and was ready with his 
report. 

“ Royal Theayter, Master Jackanapes, in the old 
place, but be careful o’ them seats, sir; they’re 
rickettier than ever. Two sweets and a ginger 
beer under the oak tree, and the Flying Boats is 
just a-coming along the road.” 

No doubt it was partly because he had already 
suffered severely in the Flying Boats that Tony 
collapsed so quickly in the giddy-go-round. He 
only mounted Bucephalus (who was spotted, and 
had no tail) because Jackanapes urged him, and 
held out the ingenious hope that the round-and- 
round feeling would very likely cure the up-and- 
down sensation. It did not, however, and Tony 
tumbled off during the first revolution. 


Bucephalus : the favorite horse of Alexander the Great, which none but he 
could ride. The horse in the giddy-go-round which any one could ride is 
so called for fun. 



He Waved his Hat. 




I 




The Fair. 


25 


Jackanapes was not absolutely free from qualms ; 
but having once mounted the Black Prince, he 
stuck to him as a horseman should. During his 
first round he waved his hat, and observed with 
some concern that the Black Prince had lost an 
ear since last Fair ; at the second, he looked a little 
pale, but sat upright, though somewhat unneces- 
sarily rigid ; at the third round he shut his eyes. 
During the fourth his hat fell off, and he clasped 
his horse’s neck. By the fifth he had laid his yellow 
head against the Black Prince’s mane, and so clung 
anyhow till the hobby-horses stopped, when the 
proprietor assisted him to alight, and he sat down 
rather suddenly and said he had enjoyed it very much. 

The Gray Goose always ran away at the first 
approach of the caravans, and never came back to 
the Green till there was nothing left of the Fair 
but footmarks and oyster-shells. Running away 
was her pet principle ; the only system, she main- 
tained, by which you can live long and easily and 
lose nothing. If you run away when you see dan- 
ger, you can come back when all is safe. Run 
quickly, return slowly, hold your head high, and 
gabble as loud as you can, and you’ll preserve the 
respect of the Goose Green to a peaceful old age. 
Why should you struggle and get hurt, if you can 
lower your head and not swerve, and not loose a 
feather Why in the world should any one spoil 
the pleasure of life, or risk his skin, if he can help 
it? 


26 


Jackanapes. 

“ ‘ What’s the use ? ’ 

Said the Goose.” 

Before answering which one might have to consider 
what world, which life, and whether his skin 
were a goose-skin ; but the Gray Goose’s head 
would never have held all that. 

Grass soon grows over footprints, and the village 
children took the oyster-shells to trim their gardens 
with; but the year after Tony rode Bucephalus 
there lingered another relic of Fair-time in which 
Jackanapes was deeply interested. “ The Green ” 
proper was originally only part of a straggling com- 
mon, which in its turn merged into some wilder 
waste land where gypsies sometimes squatted if the 
authorities would allow them, especially after the 
annual Fair. And it was after the Fair that Jacka- 
napes, out rambling by himself, was knocked over 
by the Gypsy’s son riding the Gypsy’s red-haired 
pony at breakneck pace across the common. 

Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none the 
worse except for being heels over head in love with 
the red-haired pony. What a rate he went at ! 
How he spurned the ground with his nimble feet ! 
How his red coat shone in the sunshine ! And 
what bright eyes peeped out of his dark forelock as 
it was blown by the wind ! 

The Gypsy boy had had a fright, and he was will- 
ing enough to reward Jackanapes for not having 
been hurt, by consenting to let him have a ride. 

“ Do you mean to kill the little fine gentleman. 


How to Stick on. 


27 


and swing us all on the gibbet, you rascal ? ” 
screamed the Gypsy mother, who came up just as 
Jackanapes and the pony set off. 

“ He would get on,” replied her son. “ It’ll not 
kill him. He’ll fall on his yellow head, and it’s as 
tough as a cocoanut.” 

But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to the 
red-haired pony as he had stuck to the hobby-horse; 
but, oh, how different the delight of this wild gallop 
with flesh and blood ! Just as his legs were begin- 
ning to feel as if he did not feel them, the Gypsy 
boy cried, “ Lollo ! ” Round went the pony so un- 
ceremoniously that with as little ceremony Jacka- 
napes clung to his neck ; and he did not properly 
recover himself before Lollo stopped with a jerk at 
the place where they had started. 

“Is his name Lollo asked Jackanapes, his 
hand lingering in the wiry mane. 

“ Yes.” 

“ What does Lollo mean ? ” 

“ Red.” 

“ Is Lollo your pony ? ” 

“ No. My father’s.” And the Gypsy boy led 
Lollo away. 

At the first opportunity Jacknapes stole away 
aeain to the common. This time he saw the 
Gypsy father, smoking a dirty pipe. 

“ Lollo is your pony, isn’t he.^ ” said Jackanapes. 

“ Yes.” 

“ He’s a very nice one.” 


28 


Jackanapes. 


“ He’s a racer.” 

“ You don’t want to sell him, do you ? ” 

“Fifteen pounds,” said the Gypsy father; and 
Jackanapes sighed and went home again. That 
very afternoon he and Tony rode the two donkeys; 
and Tony managed to get thrown, and even Jacka- 
napes’ donkey kicked. But it was jolting, clumsy 
work after the elastic swiftness and the dainty mis- 
chief of the red-haired pony. 

A few days later. Miss Jessamine spoke very seri- 
ously to Jackanapes. She was a good deal agitated 
as she told him that his grandfather the General 
was coming to the Green, and that he must be on 
his very best behavior during the visit. If it had 
been feasible to leave off calling him Jackanapes 
and to get used to his baptismal name of Theodore 
before the day after to-morrow (when the General 
was due), it would have been satisfactory. But Miss 
Jessamine feared it would be impossible in practice, 
and she had scruples about it on principle. It would 
not seem quite truthful, although she had always 
most fully intended that he should be called Theo- 
dore when he had outgrown the ridiculous appro- 
priateness of his nickname. The fact was that he 
had not outgrown it, but he must take care to 
remember who was meant when his grandfather 
said Theodore. 

Indeed, for that matter he must take care all along. 

“ You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes,” said Miss 
Jessamine. 


The General. 


29 

“Yes, aunt,” said Jackanapes, thinking of the 
hobby-horses. 

“You are a good boy. Jackanapes. Thank God, 
I can tell your grandfather that. An obedient boy, 
an honorable boy, and a kind-hearted boy. But you 
are — in short, you are a Boy, Jackanapes. And I 
hope,” added Miss Jessamine, desperate with the 
result of experience, “ that the General knows that 
Boys will be Boys.” 

What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes 
promised to guard against. He was to keep his 
clothes and his hands clean, to look over his cate- 
chism, not to put sticky things in his pockets, to 
keep that hair of his smooth (“ It’s the wind that 
blows it, aunty,” said Jackanapes — “I’ll send by 
the coach for some bear’s-grease,” said Miss Jessa- 
mine, tying a knot in her pocket-handkerchief), — 
not to burst in at the parlor door, not to talk at the 
top of his voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill, and 
to sit quite quiet during the sermon, to be sure to 
say “ sir” to the General, to be careful about rubbing 
his shoes on the door-mat, and to bring his lesson- 
books to his aunt at once that she might iron down 
the dogs’ ears. The General arrived ; and for the 
first day all went well, except that Jackanapes’ hair 
was as wild as usual, for the hair-dresser had no 
bear’s-grease left. He began to feel more at ease 
with his grandfather, and disposed to talk confiden- 
tially with him, as he did with the Postman. All 

Bear s-gr ease : the fat of the bear was largely used at that time for the hair. 


30 


Jackanapes. 

that the General felt, it would take too long to tell ; 
but the result was the same. He was disposed to 
talk confidentially with Jackanapes. 

“ Mons’ous pretty place this,” he said, looking out 
of the lattice on to the Green, where the grass was 
vivid with sunset and the shadows were long and 
peaceful. 

“You should see it in Fair-week, sir,” said Jack- 
anapes, shaking his yellow mop, and leaning back 
in his one of the two Chippendale arm-chairs in 
which they sat. 

“ A fine time that, eh } ” said the General, with a 
twinkle in his left eye (the other was glass). 

Jackanapes shook his hair once more. “ I enjoyed 
this last one the best of all,” he said. “ I’d so much 
money.” 

“ By George, it’s not a common complaint in these 
bad times. How much had ye ? ” 

“ I’d two shillings. A new shilling aunty gave 
me, and elevenpence I had saved up, and a penny 
from the Postman, — sir!'' added Jackanapes with 
a jerk, having forgotten it. 

“ And how did ye spend it, — sir? " inquired the 
General. 

Jackanapes spread his ten fingers on the arms of 
his chair, and shut his eyes that he might count 
the more conscientiously. 

“Watch-stand for aunty, threepence. Trumpet 

Chippendale : the name of a famous English maker of chairs in the eigh- 
teenth century. 


Two are Company. 31 

for myself, twopence ; that’s fivepence. Gingernuts 
for Tony, twopence, and a mug with a Grenadier 
on for the Postman, fourpence ; that’s elevenpence. 
Shooting-gallery a penny ; that’s a shilling. Giddy- 
go-round, a penny; that’s one and a penny. Treat- 
ing Tony, one and twopence. Flying Boats (Tony 
paid for himself), a penny, one and threepence. 
Shooting-gallery again, one and fourpence ; Fat 
Woman a penny, one and fivepence. Giddy-go- 
round again, one and sixpence. Shooting-gallery, 
one and sevenpence. Treating Tony, and then he 
wouldn’t shoot, so I did, one and eightpence. Liv- 
ing Skeleton, a penny — no, Tony treated me, the 
Living Skeleton doesn’t count. Skittles, a penny, 
one and ninepence. Mermaid (but when we got 
inside she was dead), a penny, one and tenpence. 
Theatre, a penny (Priscilla Partington, or the Green 
Lane Murder. A beautiful young lady, sir, with 
pink cheeks and a real pistol) ; that’s one and 
elevenpence. Ginger beer, a penny (I was so 
thirsty!), two shillings. And then the Shooting- 
gallery man gave me a turn for nothing, because, he 
said, I was a real gentleman, and spent my money 
like a man.” 

“ So you do, sir, so you do I ” cried the General. 
“ Egad, sir,*you spent it like a prince. And now 
I suppose you’ve not got a penny in your pocket } ” 

“Yes, I have,” said Jackanapes. “Two pennies. 
They are saving up.” And Jackanapes jingled them 
with his hand. 


32 


Jackanapes. 

“You don’t want money except at Fair-times, I 
suppose ? ” said the General. 

Jackanapes shook his mop. 

“ If I could have as much as I want, I should 
know what to buy,” said he. 

“ And how much do you want, if you could 
get it ? ” 

“ Wait a minute, sir, till I think what twopence 
from fifteen pounds leaves. Two from nothing you 
can’t, but borrow twelve. Two from twelve, ten, 
and carry one. Please remember ten, sir, when I 
ask you. One from nothing you can’t, borrow 
twenty. One from twenty nineteen, and carry one. 
One from fifteen, fourteen. F'ourteen pounds nine- 
teen and — what did I tell you to remember ? ” 

“ Ten,” said the General. 

“ Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and ten- 
pence, then, is what I want,” said Jackanapes. 

“ God bless my soul ! what for } ” 

“ To buy Lollo with. Lollo means red, sir. The 
Gypsy’s red-haired pony, sir. Oh, he is beautiful ! 
You should see his coat in the sunshine! You 
should see his mane! You should see his tail! 
Such little feet, sir, and they go like lightning! 
Such a dear face, too, and eyes like a mouse ! But 
he’s a racer, and the Gypsy wants fifteen pounds for 
him.” 

If he’s a racer you couldn’t ride him. Could you ? ” 

“ No — o, sir, but I can stick to him. I did the 
other day.” 


Lollo. 


33 


"‘The dooce you did! Well, I’m fond of riding 
myself ; and if the beast is as good as you say, he 
might suit me.” 

“You’re too tall for Lollo, I think,” said Jacka- 
napes, measuring his grandfather with his eye. 

“ I can double up my legs, I suppose. We’ll have 
a look at him to-morrow.” 

“Don’t you weigh a good deal.f^” asked Jacka- 
napes. 

“ Chiefly waistcoats,” said the General, slapping 
the breast of his military frock coat. “ We’ll have 
the little racer on the Green the first thing in the 
morning. Glad you mentioned it, grandson ; glad 
you mentioned it.” 

The General was as good as his word. Next 
morning the Gypsy and Lollo, Miss Jessamine, 
Jackanapes and his grandfather and his dog Spitfire, 
were all gathered at one end of the Green in a group, 
which so aroused the innocent curiosity of Mrs. John- 
son, as she saw it from one of her upper windows, 
that she and the children took their early prome- 
nade rather earlier than usual. The General talked 
to the Gypsy, and Jackanapes fondled Lollo’s 
mane, and did not know whether he should be 
more glad or miserable if his grandfather bought 
him. 

“ Jackanapes ! ” 

“ Yes, sir 1 ” 

“ I’ve bought Lollo, but I believe you were right. 
He hardly stands high enough for me. If you can 


34 Jackanapes. 

ride him to the other end of the Green, I’ll give him 
to you.” 

How Jackanapes tumbled on to Lollo’s back he 
never knew. He had just gathered up the reins 
when the Gypsy father took him by the arm. 

“ If you want to make Lollo go fast, my little 
gentleman — ” 

“I can make him go!” said Jackanapes; and 
drawing from his pocket the trumpet he had bought 
in the Fair, he blew a blast both loud and shrill. 

Away went Lollo, and away went Jackanapes’ 
hat. His golden hair flew out, an aureole from 
which his cheeks shone red and distended with 
trumpeting. Away went Spitfire, mad with the 
rapture of the race and the wind in his silky ears. 
Away went the geese, the cocks, the hens, and the 
whole family of Johnson. Lucy clung to her 
mamma, Jane saved Emily by the gathers of her 
gown, and Tony saved himself by a somersault. 

The Gray Goose was just returning when Jacka- 
napes and Lollo rode back. Spitfire panting behind. 

“ Good, my little gentleman, good ! ” said the 
Gypsy. “You were born to the saddle. You’ve 
the flat thigh, the strong knee, the wiry back, and 
the light caressing hand ; all you want is to learn 
the whisper. Come here I ” 

“ What was that dirty fellow talking about, grand- 
son ? ” asked the General. 

“ I can’t tell you, sir. It’s a secret.” 

The two were sitting in the window again, in the 



“1 CAN Make Him Go!” 





One that makes Old Hearts Fresh. 37 

Chippendale arm-chairs, the General devouring 
every line of his grandson’s face, with strange 
spasms crossing his own. 

“You must love your aunt very much. Jacka- 
napes ? ” 

“ I do, sir,” said Jackanapes, warmly. 

“ And whom do you love next best to your 
aunt ? ” 

The ties of blood were pressing very strongly on 
the General himself, and perhaps he thought of 
Lollo. But love is not bought in a day, even with 
fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and tenpence. 
Jackanapes answered quite readily, “The Postman.” 

“ Why the Postman ? ” 

“ He knew my father,” said Jackanapes, “and he 
tells me about him and about his black mare. My 
father was a soldier, a brave soldier. He died at 
Waterloo. When I grow up I want to be a soldier 
too.” 

“ So you shall, my boy; so you shall.” 

“ Thank you, grandfather. Aunty doesn’t want 
me to be a soldier, for fear of being killed.” 

“ Bless my life ! Would she have you get into a 
feather-bed and stay there ? Why, you might be 
killed by a thunderbolt if you were a butter mer- 
chant ! ” 

“ So I might. I shall tell her so. What a funny 
fellow you are, sir ! I say, do you think my father 
knew the Gypsy’s secret.? The Postman says he 
used to whisper to his black mare.” 


38 


Jackanapes. 

“Your father was taught to ride, as a child, by 
one of those horsemen of the East who swoop and 
dart and wheel about a plain like swallows in 
autumn. Grandson ! love me a little too. I can 
tell you more about your father than the Postman 
can.” 

“ I do love you,” said Jackanapes. “ Before you 
came I was frightened. I’d no notion you were so 
nice.” 

“ Love me always, boy, whatever I do or leave 
undone. And — - God help me ! — whatever you do 
or leave undone. I’ll love you. There shall never 
be a cloud between us for a day ; no, sir, not for an 
hour. We’re imperfect enough, all of us — we 
needn’t be so bitter ; and life is uncertain enough at 
its safest — we needn’t waste its opportunities. 
God bless my soul ! Here sit I, after a dozen bat- 
tles and some of the worst climates in the world, 
and by yonder lych gate lies your mother, who 
didn’t move five miles, I suppose, from your aunt’s 
apron-strings, — dead in her teens; my golden- 
haired daughter, whom I never saw ! ” 

Jackanapes was terribly troubled. 

“Don’t cry, grandfather,” he pleaded, his own 
blue eyes round with tears. “ I will love you very 
much, and I will try to be very good. But I 
should like to be a soldier.” 

“You shall, my boy; you shall. You’ve more 

Lych gate : an old-fashioned churchyard gate covered with a roof. See 
the picture opposite. 


One that makes Old Hearts Fresh. 


39 


claims for a commission than you know of. Cav- 
alry, I suppose; eh, ye young J ackanapes Well, 
well ; if you live to be an honor to your country, 
this old heart shall grow young again with pride for 
you ; and if you die in the service of your country 
— egad, sir, it can but break for ye ! ” 

And beating the region which he said was all 
waistcoats, as if they stifled him, the old man got 
up and strode out on to the green. 





Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for 
his friends. — J ohn xv. 13. 

Twenty and odd years later the Gray Goose was 
still alive, and in full possession of her faculties, 
such as they were. She lived slowly and carefully, 
and she lived long. So did Miss Jessamine; but 
the General was dead. 

He had lived on the Green for many years, dur- 
ing which he and the Postman saluted each other 
with a punctiliousness that it almost drilled one to 
witness. He would have completely spoiled Jacka- 
napes if Miss Jessamine’s conscience would have let 
him; otherwise he somewhat dragooned his neigh- 
bors, and was as positive about parish matters as 
a ratepayer about the army. A stormy-tempered. 

Ratepayer : taxpayer. 

40 


41 


The Boy Trumpeter. 

tender-hearted soldier, irritable with the suffering 
of the wounds of which he never spoke, whom all 
the village followed to his grave with tears. 

The General’s death was a great shock to Miss 
Jessamine, and her nephew stayed with her for 
some little time after the funeral. Then he was 
obliged to join his regiment, which was ordered 
abroad. 

One effect of the conquest which the General had 
gained over the affections of the village was a con- 
siderable abatement of the popular prejudice against 
“ the military.” Indeed, the village was now some- 
what importantly represented in the army. There 
was the General himself, and the Postman, and the 
Black Captain’s tablet in the church, and Jacka- 
napes, and Tony Johnson, and a Trumpeter. 

Tony Johnson had no more natural taste for fight- 
ing than for riding, but he was as devoted as ever 
to Jackanapes. And that was how it came about 
that Mr. Johnson bought him a commission in the 
same cavalry regiment that the General’s grandson 
(whose commission had been given him by the Iron 
Duke) was in ; and that he was quite content to 
be the butt of the mess where Jackanapes was the 
hero; and that when Jackanapes wrote home to 
Miss Jessamine, Tony wrote with the same purpose 
to his mother, — namely, to demand her congratula- 
tions that they were on active service at last, and 

The Iron Duke: the Duke of Wellington — the hero of the battle of 
Waterloo. 


42 


Jackanapes. 

were ordered to the front. And he added a post- 
script, to the effect that she could have no idea how 
popular Jackanapes was, nor how splendidly he rode 
the wonderful red charger which he had named 
after his old friend Lollo. 

******* 

“ Sound Retire ! ” 

A Boy Trumpeter, grave with the weight of re- 
sponsibilities and accoutrements beyond his years, 
and stained so that his own mother would not have 
known him, with the sweat and dust of battle, did 
as he was bid ; and then, pushing his trumpet pet- 
tishly aside, adjusted his weary legs for the hun- 
dredth time to the horse which was a world too big 
for him, and muttering, “ Tain’t a pretty tune,” tried 
to see something of this his first engagement before 
it came to an end. 

Being literally in the thick of it, he could hardly 
have seen less 'or known less of what happened 
in that particular skirmish if he had been at home 
in England. For many good reasons, — including 
dust and smoke, and that what attention he dared 
distract from his commanding officer was pretty 
well absorbed by keeping his hard-mouthed troop- 
horse in hand, under pain of execration by his 
neighbors in the melee. By and by, when the news- 
papers came out, if he could get a look at one before 
it was thumbed to bits, he would learn that the 
enemy had appeared from ambush in overwhelming 
numbers, and that orders had been given to fall back. 


Tony’s Luck. 43 

which was done slowly and in good order, the men 
fighting as they retired. 

Born and bred on the Goose Green, the youngest 
of Mr. Johnson’s gardener’s numerous offspring, the 
boy had given his family “ no peace ” till they let 
him “go for a soldier” with Master Tony and Mas- 
ter Jackanapes. They consented at last, with more 
tears than they shed when an elder son was sent to 
jail for poaching ; and the boy was perfectly happy 
in his life, and full of esprit de corps. It was this 
which had been wounded by having to sound 
retreat for “ the young gentlemen’s regiment,” the 
first time he served with it before the enemy ; and 
he was also harassed by having completely lost sight 
of Master Tony. There had beeasome hard fight- 
ing before the backward movement began, and he 
had caught sight of him once, but not since. On 
the other hand, all the pulses of his village pride 
had been stirred by one or two visions of Master 
Jackanapes whirling about on his wonderful horse. 
He had been easy to distinguish, since an eccentric 
blow had bared his head without hurting it ; for his 
close golden mob of hair gleamed in the hot sun- 
shine as brightly as the steel of the sword flashing 
round it. 

Of the missiles that fell pretty thickly, the Boy 
Trumpeter did not take much notice. First, one 
can’t attend to everything, and his hands were full ; 
secondly, one gets used to anything; thirdly, expe- 
rience soon teaches one, in spite of proverbs, how 


44 


Jackanapes. 

very few bullets find their billet. Far more unnerv- 
ing is the mere suspicion of fear or even of anxiety 
in the human mass around you. The Boy was 
beginning to wonder if there were any dark reason 
for the increasing pressure, and whether they would 
be allowed to move back more quickly, when the 
smoke in front lifted for a moment, and he could 
see the plain, and the enemy’s line some two hun- 
dred yards away. And across the plain between them, 
he saw Master Jackanapes galloping alone at the 
top of Lollo’s speed, their faces to the enemy, his 
golden head at Lollo’s ear. 

But at this moment noise and smoke seemed to 
burst out on every side ; the officer shouted to him 
to sound Retire ! and between trumpeting and 
bumping about on his horse, he saw and heard no 
more of the incidents of his first battle. 

Tony Johnson was always unlucky with horses; 
from the days of the giddy-go-round onwards. On 
this day — of all days in the year — his own horse 
was on the sick list, and he had to ride an inferior, 
ill-conditioned beast, and fell off that, at the very 
moment when it was a matter of life and death to be 
able to ride away. The horse fell on him, but strug- 
gled up again, and Tony managed to keep hold of it. 
It was in trying to remount that he discovered, by 


Melee: esprit de corps: French for confused mass, — there is no exact 
English equivalent, nor for esprit de corps : loyalty, pride ; hence the French 
words are used. 

“ Every bullet has its billet : ” old proverb. Billet : mark. 


A Ride for Life. 


45 


helplessness and anguish, that one of his legs was 
crushed and broken, and that no feat of which he 
was master would get him into the saddle. Not 
able even to stand alone, awkwardly, agonizingly, 
unable to mount his restive horse, his life was yet 
so strong within him ! And on one side of him 
rolled the dust and cloud-smoke of his advancing 
foes, and on the other, that which covered his retreat- 
ing friends. 

He turned one piteous gaze after them, with a 
bitter twinge, not of reproach, but of loneliness; and 
then, dragging himself up by the side of his horse, 
he turned the other way and drew out his pistol, 
and waited for the end. Whether he waited seconds 
or minutes he never knew, before some one gripped 
him by the arm. 

'"''Jackanapes ! God bless you! It’s my left leg. 
If you could get me on — ” 

It was like Tony’s luck that his pistol went off at 
his horse’s tail, and made it plunge; but Jackanapes 
threw him across the saddle. 

“ Hold on anyhow, and stick your spur in. I’ll 
lead him. Keep your head down; they’re firing 
high.” 

And Jackanapes laid his head down — to Lollo’s 
ear. 

It was when they were fairly off, that a sudden 
upspringing of the enemy in all directions had made 
it necessary to change the gradual retirement of our 
force into as rapid a retreat as possible. And when 


46 


Jackanapes. 

Jackanapes became aware of this, and felt the lag- 
ging and swerving of Tony’s horse, he began to wish 
he had thrown his friend across his own saddle and 
left their lives to Lollo. 

When Tony became aware of it, several things 
came into his head: i. That the dangers of their 
ride for life were now more than doubled ; 2. That 
if Jackanapes and Lollo were not burdened with 
him they would undoubtedly escape; 3. That Jacka- 
napes’ life was infinitely valuable, and his — Tony’s 
— was not; 4. That this, if he could seize it, was 
the supremest of all the moments in which he had 
tried to assume the virtues which Jackanapes had by 
nature; and that if he could be courageous and 
unselfish now — 

He caught at his own reins and spoke very loud, — 

“Jackanapes! It won’t do. You and Lollo 
must go on. Tell the fellows I gave you back to 
them with all my heart. Jackanapes, if you love me, 
leave me 1 ” 

There was a daffodil light over the evening sky 
in front of them, and it shone strangely on Jacka- 
napes’ hair and face. He turned with an odd look 
in his eyes that a vainer man than Tony Johnson 
might have taken for brotherly pride. Then he 
shook his mop, and laughed at him. 

Leave you? To save my skin? No, Tony, 
not to save my soul ! ” 



f4m' 

« ^ '"Sc iC v 
Y,,^ , m ' 

r^t'' X 


^ILUCC. 


Tony and Jackanapes Riding Together. 



•I 


1 

•1 




CHAPTER V. 


My . Y A'LiAiiiL stim7noned. His Will. His last Words. 

Then said he, “I am going to my Fathers. . . . My Sword I give 
to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my Courage and 
Skill to him that can get it.” . . . . And as he went down deeper, he 
said, “Grave, where is thy Victory ?” 

So he passed over, and all the Trumpets sounded for him on the 
other side. 

Bunyan : Pilgrim'' s Progress. 


Coming out of a hospital tent, at headquarters, 
the surgeon caromed against, and rebounded from, 
another officer, — a sallow man, not young, with a 
face worn more by ungentle experiences than by 
age, with weary eyes that kept their own counsel, 
iron-gray hair, and a mustache that was as if a 
raven had laid its wing across his lips and sealed 
them. 

“ Well?" 

“ Beg pardon, Major. Didn’t see you. Oh, com- 


E 


49 


50 Jackanapes. 

pound fracture and bruises. But it’s all right ; he’ll 
pull through.” 

“ Thank God.” 

It was probably an involuntary expression ; for 
prayer and praise were not much in the Major’s 
line, as a jerk of the surgeon’s head would have 
betrayed to an observer. He was a bright little 
man, with his feelings showing all over him, but 
with gallantry and contempt of death enough for 
both sides of his profession ; who took a cool head, 
a white handkerchief, and a case of instruments, 
where other men went hot-blooded with weapons, 
and who was the biggest gossip, male or female, of 
the regiment. Not even the Major’s taciturnity 
daunted him. 

“ Didn’t think he’d as much pluck about him as 
he has. He’ll do all right if he doesn’t fret himself 
into a fever about poor Jackanapes.” 

“ Whom are you talking about ? ” asked the 
Major, hoarsely. 

“ Young Johnson. He — ” 

“ What about Jackanapes ? ” 

“ Don’t you know ? Sad business. Rode back 
for Johnson, and brought him in ; but, monstrous 
ill-luck, hit as they rode. Left lung — ” 

“ Will he recover ? ” 

“ No. Sad business. What a frame — what 
limbs — what health — and what good looks ! Finest 
young fellow — ” 

“ Where is he ? ” 


The Result of that Ride. 


51 


“ In his own tent,” said the surgeon, sadly. 

The Major wheeled and left him. 
#***#*# 

“ Can I do anything else for you ? ” 

“ Nothing, thank you. Except — Major ! I wish 
I could get you to appreciate Johnson.” 

“ This is not an easy moment. Jackanapes.” 

“ Let me tell you, sir, — ke never will — that if 
he could have driven me from him, he would be 
lying yonder at this moment, and I should be safe 
and sound.” 

The Major laid his hand over his mouth, as if to 
keep back a wish he would have been ashamed to 
utter. 

“ I’ve known old Tony from a child. He’s a fool 
on impulse, a good man and a gentleman in princi- 
ple. And he acts on principle, which it’s not every 
— Some water, please ! Thank you, sir. It’s very 
hot, and yet one’s feet get uncommonly cold. Oh, 
thank you, thank you. He’s no fire-eater, but he 
has a trained conscience and a tender heart, and 
he’ll do his duty when a braver and more selfish 
man might fail you. But he wants encouragement ; 
and when I’m gone — ” 

“ He shall have encouragement. You have my 
word for it. Can I do nothing else ? ” 

“Yes, Major. A favor.” 

“ Thank you. Jackanapes.” 

“ Be Lollo’s master, and love him as well as you 
can. He’s used to it.” 


52 


Jackanapes. 

“ Wouldn’t you rather Johnson had him ? ” 

The blue eyes twinkled in spite of mortal pain. 

“ Tony rides on principle, Major. His legs are 
bolsters, and will be to the end of the chapter. I 
couldn’t insult dear Lollo ; but if you don’t 
care — ” 

“ While I live — which will be longer than I 
desire or deserve — Lollo shall want nothing but 
— you. I have too little tenderness for — My dear 
boy, you’re faint. Can you spare me for a moment } ” 

“ No, stay — Major ! ” 

“ What What ? ” 

“ My head drifts so — if you wouldn’t mind.” 

“ Yes ! Yes ! ” 

“ Say a prayer by me. Out loud, please ; I am 
getting deaf.” 

“ My dearest Jackanapes — my dear boy — ” 

“ One of the Church Prayers — Parade Service, 
you know — ” 

“ I see. But the fact is — God forgive me. Jacka- 
napes ! — I’m a very different sort of fellow to some 
of you youngsters. Look here, let me fetch — ” 

But Jackanapes’ hand was in his, and it would not 
let go. 

There was a brief and bitter silence. 

“ ’Pon my soul, I can only remember the little 
one at the end.” 

“ Please,” whispered Jackanapes. 

Pressed by the conviction that what little he could 
do it was his duty to do, the Major, kneeling, bared 


His Last Words. 


53 

his head, and spoke loudly, clearly, and very rever- 
ently, — 

“ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ — ” 
Jackanapes moved his left hand to his right one, 
which still held the Major’s — 

“ The love of God — ” 

And with that — Jackanapes died. 





CHAPTER VI. 


Und so ist der blaue Himmel grosser als jedes Gewolk darin, und 
dauerhafter dazu. 


Jean Paul Richter. 


Jackanapes’ death was sad news for the Goose 
Green, a sorrow just qualified by honorable pride 
in his gallantry and devotion. Only the Cobbler 
dissented ; but that was his way. He said he saw 
nothing in it but foolhardiness and vainglory. 
They might both have been killed, as easy as not ; 
and then where would ye have been ? A man’s life 
was a man’s life, and one life was as good as 
another. No one would catch him throwing his 
away. And, for that matter, Mrs. Johnson could 
spare a child a great deal better than Miss Jessa- 
mine. 

But the parson preached Jackanapes’ funeral ser- 
mon on the text, “ Whosoever will save his life 
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my 

Greater and more enduring than the clouds is the blue sky above them. 

54 


Lollo the First. 


55 

sake shall find it ; ” and all the village went and 
wept to hear him. 

Nor did Miss Jessamine see her loss from the 
Cobbler’s point of view. On the contrary, Mrs. 
Johnson said she never to her dying day should 
forget how, when she went to condole with her, the 
old lady came forward, with gentlewomanly self- 
control, and kissed her, and thanked God that her 
dear nephew’s effort had been blessed with success, 
and that this sad war had made no gap in her 
friend’s large and happy home-circle. 

“ But she’s a noble, unselfish woman,” sobbed 
Mrs. Johnson, “ and she taught Jackanapes to be the 
same ; and that’s how it is that my Tony has been 
spared to me. And it must be sheer goodness 
in Miss Jessamine, for what can she know of a 
mother’s feelings And I’m sure most people 
seem to think that if you’ve a large family you 
don’t know one from another any more than they 
do, and that a lot of children are like a lot of store 
apples, — if one’s taken it won’t be missed.” 

Lollo — the first Lollo, the Gypsy’s Lollo — very 
aged, draws Miss Jessamine’s bath-chair slowly up 
and down the Goose Green in the sunshine. 

The Ex-postman walks beside him, which Lollo 
tolerates to the level of his shoulder. If the Post- 
man advances any nearer to his head, Lollo quick- 
ens his pace ; and ,were the Postman to persist in 
the injudicious attempt, there is, as Miss Jessamine 
says, no knowing what might happen. 

UofCr 


56 


Jackanapes. 

In the opinion of the Goose Green, Miss Jessa- 
mine has borne her troubles “ wonderfully.” Indeed, 
to-day, some of the less delicate and less intimate 
of those who see everything from the upper win- 
dows say (well, behind her back) that “ the old lady 
seems quite lively with her military beaux again.” 

The meaning of this is, that Captain Johnson is 
leaning over one side of her chair, while by the 
other bends a brother officer who is staying with 
him, and who has manifested an extraordinary 
interest in Lollo. He bends lower and lower, and 
Miss Jessamine calls to the Postman to request 
Lollo to be kind enough to stop, while she is fum- 
bling for something which always hangs by her 
side, and has got entangled with her spectacles. 

It is a twopenny trumpet, bought years ago in the 
village fair; and over it she and Captain Johnson 
tell, as best they can, between them, the story of 
Jackanapes’ ride across Goose Green; and how he 
won Lollo — the Gypsy’s * Lollo — the racer Lollo 
— dear Lollo — faithful Lollo — Lollo the never 
vanquished — Lollo the tender servant of his old 
mistress. And Lollo’s ears twitch at every mention 
of his name. 

Their hearer does not speak, but he never 
moves his eyes from the trumpet; and when the 
tale is told, he lifts Miss Jessamine’s hand and 
presses his heavy black mustache in silence to her 
trembling fingers. 

The sun, setting gently to his rest, embroiders 


Das Sichtbare ist zeitlich. 


57 


the sombre foliage of the oak tree with threads of 
gold. The Gray Goose is sensible of an atmosphere 
of repose, and puts up one leg for the night. The 
grass glows with a more vivid green, and, in an- 
swer to a ringing call from Tony, his sisters, flut- 
tering over the daisies in pale-hued muslins, come 
out of their ever-open door, like pretty pigeons from 
a dovecote. 

And if the good gossips’ eyes do not deceive 
them, all the Miss Johnsons and both the officers 
go wandering off into the lanes, where bryony 
wreaths still twine about the brambles. 
******* 

A sorrowful story, and ending badly ? ‘ 

Nay, Jackanapes, for the End is not yet. 

A life wasted that might have been useful ? 

Men who have died for men, in all ages, forgive 
the thought ! 

There is a heritage of heroic example and noble 
obligation, not reckoned in the Wealth of Nations, 
but essential to a nation’s life; the contempt of 
which, in any people, may, not slowly, mean even 
its commercial fall. 

Very sweet are the uses of prosperity, the har- 
vests of peace and progress, the fostering sunshine 
of health and happiness, and length of days in the 
land. 

But there be things — oh, sons of what has deserved 

“The things that are seen are temporal.” II. Cor. iv. i8. 


AUG *4 1900 


58 Jackanapes. 

the name of Great Britain, forget it not ! “ the 
good of ” which and “ the use of ” which are beyond 
all calculation of worldly goods and earthly uses: 
things such as Love, and Honor, and the Soul of 
Man, which cannot be bought with a price, and 
which do not die with death. And they who would 
fain live happily ever after should not leave these 
things out of the lessons of their lives. 



Heath’s Home and School Classics. 


THE YOUNG READER’S SERIES. (Illustrated.) 


Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Edited by Sarah Willard Hiestand. 

Illustrations after Retzsch, portrait by Chandos . 15 cents. 

Chapters on Animals — Dogs, Cats and Horses. By P. G. Hamer- 
tON. Edited by Professor W. P. Trent . . 15 cents. 

With illustrations after Veyrassat, Van Muyden, Landseer, Rosa Bonheur, 
etc., by E. H. Saunders, and D. Munro, 

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Edited by Sarah 
Willard Hiestand. Illustrations after Sir R. Smirke, and the 
Droeshont portrait . . . . 15 cents. 

The Adventures of Ulysses. By Charles Lamb. Edited by Professor 
W. P. Trent. Illustrations after Flaxman. 15 cents 

Undine. By De la Motte Fouque. With an introduction by Mrs. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. . ; ; - 15 cents 

Castle Blair. By Flora L. Shaw. With an introduction by Mrs. 
Mary A. Livermore. 


Gulliver’s Travels. I. A Voyage to Lilliput Edited by Thomas 
M. Balliet, Supt. of Schools, Sprin^eld, Mass. 15 cents. 
Gulliver’s Travels. 11 . A Voyage to Brobdingriag. Edited by 
Thomas M. Balliet . . . ,. , . 15 cents. 

The Siege of Leyden. From Motley’s “ Rise of the Dutch Republic.”' 

Edited by the Rev, W. Elliot Griffis. . . lo cents. 

Rab and his Friends and Stories of Our Dogs. By Dr. John 
. Brow’n. Edited by Thomas M. Balliet. 

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. With an in- 
troduction by Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. 
Part I . . ... . 15 cents. 

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. j>Vith an in- 
troduction by Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, 
Part II . 'y-'- ; ‘ f . " . .. . 15 cents. 


rtm‘ 



Robinson Crusoe. By Daniel Defoe. Edited by the Rev. Edward 
Everett Hale. 


Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Edited by Sarah Willard 
Hiestand. Ulus, after Smirke, Creswick, Leslie, and the Jansen 
portrait . . . . 15 cents. 

Typee. A Real Romance of the South Seas. By Herman Mel- 
ville. Edited by Professor W. P Trent. 

Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. Edited by Sarah Willard 
Hiestand. Ulus, after Leslie, Wheatley^ and Wright, and the 
bust in Westminster Abbey ... . . . 15 cents. 

Dolph Heyliger. By Washington Irving. Edited by G. H. Browne 



